CATEGORY: EDUCATION (5 MIN) 

Expelled from class

Most law students would find themselves lucky to hear from a man who occupies a position they aspire to. But when Judge Kyle Duncan, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arrived to give a talk at Stanford Law School, his reception was less than warm. Stanford law students shouted Duncan down, and the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) dean joined the cacophony. 

ISI’s own Daniel McCarthy, Vice President for the Collegiate Network and editor of Modern Age, uses Duncan’s situation to highlight the disturbing lack of ideological diversity in higher education in the New York Post. He discusses the protest’s normalcy in today’s America—students at schools across the nation choose to drown out voices that offend their sensitivities. 

And there’s no pushback against these students, McCarthy notes, because they constitute the vast majority of the population at American educational institutions. This extends to professors as well. McCarthy cites a Harvard survey from last year finding 82 percent of its faculty to be “liberal” or “very liberal.” Fewer than 1.5 percent were “conservative.” 

Read McCarthy’s article to discover what he argues are the roots of this disorder. 

CATEGORY: CULTURE (10 MIN)

The game of life

Chances are that you’re looking at a screen right now. After all, when aren’t we? Our virtual lives have become more and more developed in recent decades—online communities, events, and diversions take up ever-increasing chunks of our time. Why is the cybersphere so attractive, and can we free ourselves from it? 

For The American Conservative, Alex Kaschuta hypothesizes that the websites and apps we frequent draw on our love for games and competition to pull us in. Kaschuta points to feedback such as likes, clicks, ratios, and laugh reacts that can give us the feeling that we have somehow “won” something.  

This feeling of “winning” is extremely addictive, Kaschuta says, and leads mostly to negative real-world effects. There are some redeeming qualities, but they pale in comparison to one major downside: our society is showing and telling a whole lot more than it’s actually doing. 

Discover Kaschuta’s projection for the future of our virtual existence here. 

Gender: Who Decides?
A Debate on Transgenderism & Womanhood

What does it mean to be a man or a woman? Can you be born a man and actually become a woman? Is identity tangibly attached to something inherent in us, or is it intangible and subjective? Is it merely some social construct or is it embedded in our genes, in our biological identity itself? ​​​​Can we actually conquer our human nature and identity in the same way we seemed to have conquered the other realms of nature? If we try, what are the consequences? 

Join the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, on April 18th at 7 PM as Michael Knowles and Deirdre McCloskey debate womanhood and transgenderism. Register here to attend in-person or online.

Join us in Pittsburgh >>>

Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.

CATEGORY: EDUCATION (6 MIN)

No speech for you

The prevailing winds in academia that silenced Judge Duncan have been blowing for longer than we might remember. Major educational institutions have long housed students who form mobs of oppression that prevent free thinkers from discussing or admitting to their beliefs.  

Danielle Charette, an ISI Honors Fellow, society founder, and editor of a Collegiate Network publication, wrote about this censorship in 2014. In our Intercollegiate Review archive, Charette discusses her brutal experience with liberal oppression during her time at Swarthmore College. 

In her first week at Swarthmore, Charette and another student tried to found a conservative discussion group. Progressive students tore down their flyers and replaced them with mocking flyers of their own. Later, Charette tried to invite conservative scholar and Swarthmore alumnus Dr. Robert George to speak on campus. Three faculty members protested the event in the student paper and liberal students spread aggressive leaflets. 

But Charette believes there’s hope, both because of the resources of ISI and because of the truth. 

“Fortunately, we had both humor and the First Amendment on our side. And so do you,” she writes. 

Read her full article here. 

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